Life's Getting Harder, Day By Day
by DarkElements10
Summary: -Sequel to 'CI'- It's been a year since the incident. That's what they're calling it. Dougie refuses to talk about it. But what he doesn't realize is that his refusal of facing his past is starting to affect his present. COMPLETED
1. Prologue

_**Prologue**_

_"Dougie, are you coming or not…Dougie?"_

_"What?"_

_Dougie looked up from his lap and looked at his little sister with scrunched up eyebrows, clearly showing his confusion. Jazzie sighed and placed her hands on her hips, rolling her eyes in annoyance before taking a step forward and grabbing his arms. She leaned back as she pulled; causing his arms to become uncrossed from around his knees and was successful in pulling him to his feet._

_"Where are we going?" he asked._

_"You forgot already?" Jazzie widened her eyes in disbelief as she looked at her older brother. "I always knew that I should have been born first. I'm more responsible."_

_Dougie rolled his eyes at her teasing, something that they constantly did, to get a rise out of each other. But they knew that they didn't mean anything that was being said._

_"Dougie, do you really not remember?" Jazzie asked quietly as she took his hand._

_"No, I really don't." Dougie replied as he looked down at her face._

_"You're forgetting a lot of things lately." She muttered. "Mum's getting worried."_

_"Mum's been worried about me since I was born." Dougie scoffed in reply. "It's something all mum's do, they worry._

_"Too true." Jazzie replied as she brushed her hair over her shoulder. She tightened her grip on Dougie's hand and started to lead him down the grassy hill that he was sitting on. "Come on, let's go."_

_Dougie sighed in exasperation as he let himself be led by his younger sister to the destination that he had no knowledge of. He shoved his other hand into his pocket and looked at the face of each adult that he passed. Thinking the same thing about each of them._

_Would he hit his child?_

_Would she hit her child?_

_Would they ever think of killing their children?_

_Have they ever tried?_

_It's thoughts like these that have been keeping Dougie so distant lately._

_So distant…nobody knows what's going on inside his head…_

_And that's the whole problem…_


	2. Chapter 1

**Like the last story, the chapters are going to be short or long depending on how I want it to go. Thanks for reviewing. I'm done with my exams, schools out, and I should be able to update my stories sooner. I already have a new story idea that I'm working on. ^-^**

* * *

**Chapter One**

"Jazzie, where are we going?" Dougie asked, finally tired of not knowing where they were going. He looked up at the front of the building as Jazzie pushed them through the sliding glass doors. It was kind of tall, and it looked like an office building, which made him even more confused.

"Just shut up already." Jazzie replied as she moved around Dougie and started to push on his lower back, showing him forward. She walked back around him when they reached the front desk. "Douglas and Jasmine Poynter."

"Third floor." The secretary replied with a nice smile.

"Thank you!" Jazzie replied politely and dragged Dougie over to the elevator. Dougie planted his feet firmly on the floor, making sure that Jazzie wasn't able to move him. He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Alright, I'm _not_ moving until you tell me where we are and why we're here." He declared.

"Wow, you can act like a brat sometimes." Jazzie commented as she shook her head, crossing her arms over her own chest. Dougie made a grunting sound and took a step back, letting her know that he was serious about leaving if she didn't answer him. "We're at a psychiatrist's office, and I'm sure you know _why_ we're here."

"Jazzie, I don't need a shrink" Dougie snapped as he followed Jazzie into the elevator. He jammed his thumb into the door close button fiercely.

"Then explain to me why you're in this elevator and that you just closed the elevator doors." Jazzie replied smugly and then sighed, reaching out and taking Dougie's hand gently. "Doug, I think this is a very good idea, so we can have a little bit of closure in our lives."

"I don't need closure, I'm _fine_!"

"Dougie, just go to this one meeting, or me? For mum?"

Dougie looked down at his sister and saw the hopeful look on her face. He knew that he owed this to her. Seeing as McFly is starting to get bigger and have a lot of gigs, that along with school work is keeping Dougie from seeing his sister much, and he knew that she was sad that he doesn't hang out with her anymore. He hated to see her sad and the fact that she wanted him to do this…to see if it would make his life easier show how much she cared about him.

"Alright," he replied and dropped his shoulders. "But if he asks me how does that make you feel, I'm out of there!"

Jazzie giggled and nodded.

The elevator doors opened with a slight whooshing sound and Dougie and Jazzie stepped out and walked towards the office that they were told to go to. Dougie backed up as the door opened, almost getting shoved into his sinuses and blinked when he saw who stepped out of it.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. Riley Jackson cocked her head to the side, an amused look on her face, it faded quickly.

"What does it look like I'm doing here?" she replied before turning to Jazzie and giving her a hug in greeting. She and Jazzie have gotten really close over the past year, not considering the fact that she is almost Dougie's girlfriend. She (Riley) and Dougie hang out a lot, but he has never asked her out. Jazzie is annoyed of this because she knows that Dougie likes her a lot. And to put it in Jazzie's words, 'he's too stupid to make a move'. "I'm getting help."

"For your abuse?" Jazzie asked curiously.

"No, for my bipolar disorder." Riley replied as she shoved her hands in her pockets. Since her father was sent to jail, she's currently living in a foster home, because she didn't want to change schools. "The abuse…is that why you guys are here?"

"Yeah, it is." Dougie replied simply.

"Mum wanted us to have some sort of closure, so she thought that it would be a good idea to come here." Jazzie added. Riley nodded and shoved her hands into her jeans pockets, lightly kicking the ground.

"That's a good idea," she said solemnly and gave a small laugh, brushing her bangs out of her face. "Wish I could do that, but I have too much stuff going on right now."

"You mean…you're not getting help for your abuse?" Dougie asked as he raised his eyebrows. Riley turned her gaze to him.

"My dad being in jail is closure enough" she replied. "I'll see you guys later."

She turned and walked out of the office, using the stairs instead of the elevator.

"Something's wrong." Jazzie spoke up after a second of silence. Dougie looked over t her curiously, asking a silent question with his eyes. Jazzie turned and looked at him, her blue eyes laced with concern. "I can just tell. There's something wrong with her. I have a feeling. And my feelings, unfortunately, are never wrong."


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Ring Ring…

Ring Ring…

Ring Ring…

Ring RIing…

Ring Ring…

"Danny, your cell phone is ringing." Mrs. Jones said to her son as she appeared in his doorway, drying her hands on a dishtowel.

"I know." Danny replied as he looked up over the top of his laptop at her.

"Don't you want to answer it?"

"Why, I know its Tom anyway." Danny shrugged and gave a smile. "Besides, I'm doing this just so I can piss him off. I'm supposed to be practicing for our gig coming up. You're coming right?"

"Only if I get off of work on time." Mrs. Jones replied with a cheerful smile. "But Vicky will be home by then, she'll come to see you."

"Cool!"

Mrs. Jones smiled at her son's happiness and left the room. Danny looked over at his cell phone that was still ringing and put his laptop aside, reaching to answer it. The ring was starting to bug him, and he knew that Tom would be beyond pissed off if he didn't answer it soon.

"Hello?" he asked timidly into the phone and quickly pulled it away from his ear, just in case Tom was going to shout back at him. Hearing nothing, he put the phone back to his ear. "Sorry, what was that?"

"I said, what took you so long to answer the phone, jackass?" Dougie's voice sounded one part annoyed and two parts amused.

"Oh, I thought you were Tom, so I was going to try and piss him off by not answering." Danny replied with a chuckle. "What's up? How's it going?"

"If by how's it going you mean, how's it going with the fact that I was abused about a year ago, I'm fine." Dougie replied, totally deadpan. "As to what's up, not much. And that's the problem. Let's go hang out. I need to get away from my sister for a while."

"Alright, where do you want to go?" Danny asked as he cradled the phone to his ear as he leaned forward to put his shoes on.

"How about we just go over to Tom's house." Dougie replied. Danny cold practically see the smirk that was on his face. "Let me call Harry and tell him what's going on. But don't tell Tom that we're coming, I want to see how annoyed he gets."

Danny burst out laughing. "Alright, let's walk over then."

"Ok"

Danny hung up the phone and put it in his pocket, along with grabbing his wallet. He grabbed a jacket and quickly put it on before running down the stairs. "Bye mom! I'm going over to Tom's!" he shouted as he walked out the front door.

Dougie was just leaving his house, still talking on his cell phone when Danny got there. Dougie hung up his phone and shoved it into his pocket. "Hey Dan."

"Hey."

The two started to walk to Tom's house. "Written any new songs lately?" Dougie asked, to start a conversation.

"Uh yeah, I have actually." Danny admitted as he scratched the back of his head. "Two or three. I think Tom will like them, I mean; I want him to look them over, see if he can do anything with them. Because he's really good at that."

"Yeah, I get jealous of it sometimes." Dougie stuffed his hands into his pockets. "I write a couple of songs, but I don't think they're that good."

"Oh come on, Dougie. With a brain like yours, as weird as it can be, you probably write really good songs." Danny reassured him. "Actually, why don't you show us it later, I 'm sure that its really great."

"I don't know." Dougie hesitated.

"C'mon dude, it'll be cool." Danny placed his hand on Dougie's shoulder. Dougie flinched horribly and backed away, briefly closing his eyes and then opening them again, breathing heavily. "Sorry dude, I forgot."

"No, its ok." Dougie looked at the ground and lightly kicked it. "I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

Danny started to say something else, but Harry's running over to them cut them off. "Hey guys." Harry panted as he stood next to them. "You won't believe how hard it is to fun over here…right after you've eaten. I feel like I'm going to puke."

"Just don't puke on me." Dougie smiled as he took a step back.

"I won't, I promise." Harry laughed in reply. "How're you doing?"

"Fine."

Harry nodded and the three started walking to Tom's house, laughing and joking with each other. When they were about to go up to Tom's house, Danny put his arms out, effectively causing Dougie and Harry to stop walking. A large, mischievous grin was on his face.

"Do you guys want to annoy Tom even more than he's going to be?" he asked slowly, staring straight ahead.

"You know me, I love to annoy Tom." Harry smiled in reply.

"Same here." Dougie added.

"Good, then follow me."


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**

* * *

**

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Tom called in annoyance as he walked towards the front door of his house. "Oi! How hard is it for you to fucking understand-"

"Don't curse, Tom. You know mum won't like it." Carrie, Tom's little sister, commented, poking her head down the stairs. Tom turned around and stuck his tongue out at her before opening the front door.

"What is it?" he shouted and then looked confused when he saw that no one was at the door.

"Who's at the door?" Carrie asked curiously as she slowly walked down.

"No one" Tom replied, still looking around. Just as he blinked, he felt a stinging pain on his chest and felt a liquid rush over his shirt. Looking down he saw a part of a popped balloon, and before he could move, three more came and hit him in the head and the chest. "Bloody Hell!"

He looked up at the sound of laughter and glared, rolling his eyes, when he saw his three friends rolling round on the ground, laughing their butts off.

"You should have seen the look on your face!" Harry declared, getting up and putting an arm around Tom's shoulders. "Really, don't blame me on this one, dude. It was all Danny's idea.

"Yeah, but you went along with it." Danny managed to say between peals of laughter. "I mean, it's called peer pressure and you never want to give into it. It's a bad thing. Temptation is a bad thing."

"Remind me to tell you that next time you see a bird you want to get together with." Tom replied and stepped aside so they could get into the house, wringing out his shirt at the same time. "What happened to someone knocking on the door and acting like a normal person?"

"You know as well as I do that we aren't normal." Harry replied with a smirk.

"Right" Tom replied with a smirk of his own. He turned and saw Carrie was still standing by the stairs. "You guys remember my sister."

"Of course. Hey Carrie."

"Hey Harry. How's Catherine?"

"Oh, she's fine. She and Thomas are doing well." Harry replied, beaming. He always smiled whenever it came to talk about his brother and sister. Even though they're both older than him, he cares about them a lot. And sometimes feels as if he should be older than them.

One of the reasons that Tom, Danny, Dougie, and Harry became friends is because they all have sisters. And that was a weird coincidence to them when they first became friends.

"Hey," Dougie moved over to Carrie and looked at Tom evilly. "Do you have any new stories about Tom that I can use against him?"

"OI, DON'T TELL HIM ANYTHING!" Tom shouted loudly, causing them all to jump and laugh.

"No, Dougie, I'm sorry, but Tom asked me t stop torturing him and to stop embarrassing him in front of his friends, and because I love him so much, I agreed." Carrie replied, smiling sweetly.

"Damn, man, why can't you get a girlfriend like that?" Harry asked seriously.

"Oh, Oh, I know! Let me answer!" Danny cried in mock-excitement, waving his hand around. Harry motioned towards him and Danny lowered his arm, grinning. "It's because you're a nerd!"

Even Carrie had to giggle at that one.

"I am _not_ a nerd!" Tom replied indignantly, placing his hands on his hips.

"Mate, yes you are." Dougie replied and started to count off on his fingers. "You like, no, obsess, over Star Wars, Back to the Future, and you like _math class_." He said math class and shuddered as if he had just seen his grandmother naked.

"What's wrong with math class?" Tom defended himself.

"Oh, noting for the person that's actually passing."

"I told you before that I would help you."

"And give the teachers _another _reason to be suspicious of me. No thanks." Dougie snorted in reply, crossing his arms over his chest.

"All right then." Tom shrugged in reply. "I'm going to go change my shirt and you guys can go ahead and get something to eat and go into the basement."

"Cool"

Dougie, Harry, and Danny started towards the basement, and before Dougie could reach the door, Carrie grabbed his arm. When he looked over at her, he could tell that she wanted to ask him a question. Looking back over at Harry and Danny, they were looking back at him, waiting.

"I'll be there in one minute, guys." Dougie replied with a casual wave of his hand. Danny looked at Harry and Dougie could tell that he was trying to hide a smile, before the two disappeared down stairs. "What's up?" he asked, turning back to Carrie.

"I was just wondering how your sister was doing." Carrie replied and let go of Dougie's arm, looking at the floor. "She and I…we hang out a lot, but…I'm not sure if the happiness that she feels is real..or if she's trying to fake it for my own sake."

'_That's just like Jazzie, always worrying about others before worrying about herself._' Dougie thought to himself with a fond smile. His smile faded as he shook his head and thought about the answer to the question. "She's fine, she's coping really well." He replied. "But, she's really lucky to have friends like you."

"Are _you_ ok?"

"Yeah, totally."

"Because, you know that if you ever need help or anything, you and Jazzie can come over here."

"I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

"So, Dougie, what were you doing with Carrie upstairs?" Harry asked casually and then snickered when he saw Tom's head whip around and he stared at Dougie. Dougie sighed and looked over at Tom.

"Don't worry about it, dude," he reassured his friend. "We were talking about what to get Jazzie for her birthday."

"That's good because it would be really weird if you were interested in my sister." Tom replies, shaking his head, the horrified look slowly fading. And then he smirked. "Besides, I'm pretty sure that you have a thing for Riley."

"I don't have a thing for anyone, thank you." Dougie replied dully.

"You're lying."

"I'm not!"

"You are!"

"Are not!" Dougie laughed and threw a pillow at him. Tom laughed too and caught the pillow, shaking his head. When the laughter subsided, they were thrown back into silence.

"So, what do you guys want to do?" Danny asked in a bored tone.

Tom, Harry, Dougie, and Danny had been lying on the couches in the basement, staring at the walls or the ceiling for the past twenty minutes. Occasionally making jokes, or making comments about music or people, other than that, they have been silent. Not sure what to do or what to say.

"I don't know, playing video games gets annoying." Harry sighed as he tossed a soccer ball up and down in the air. On the last throw, he missed and it sailed over and hit Danny in the face, who sat up from where he was laying down, holding onto his nose and glaring as the other three boys laughed; Harry laughing the hardest. "Ok, that just made my day."

"Well, you came over to work on our music, right?" Tom asked as he lifted an acoustic guitar off of the floor. "Why don't we work on that?"

"How about we watch TV instead?" Danny asked and grabbed the remote off of the floor, he turned on the TV and the news was on. As soon as Dougie looked at the TV screen, he was transfixed. The faces of his father and Riley's father were staring back at him.

_It's been a year since Gary Poynter and Robert Jackson had been taken to jail for abusing their children, Dougie Poynter, Jasmine Poynter, and Rilandon Jackson. But there's a question that has been on everybody's' minds since then. Why haven't these two sick people been sent to jail yet and why did the children wait so long to call the police_?

Tom placed his face into his hands and Harry started to yell at Danny to shut the TV off. Danny fumbled for the remote, turning it upside-down and backwards numerous times before shutting off the TV. He started to apologize over and over again, but Dougie cut him off.

"No, guys, it's ok." He tried to reassure his friends. "Really. Its fine. Those are the questions that I hear my mum ask all the time. It's cool."

"If you're sure." Tom replied quietly.

"I am." Dougie nodded confidently and smiled. "Hey, who wants to play hide and seek?"

"Aren't we a little too old for that game?" Harry asked dryly.

"No way, I _love_ hide and seek" Tom declared as he jumped out of the chair that he was in, casting his guitar aside carelessly. "Who's it first?"

"You are, because it's your house." Danny replied and took a running leap off of the floor and bolted towards the stairs, charging up them two at a time.

"Alright," Tom rolled his eyes and glared pointedly at Harry and Dougie. "Don't go into my mom's and dad's room and you're fine."

"Got it." Harry nodded in reply. "Count to fifty." He instructed and then grabbed Dougie's wrist. "C'mon."

Tom covered his face with his hands and started to count as Harry and Dougie ran up the basement stairs. Carrie, who was sitting in the kitchen, watching music videos on the small TV, looked up as they ran by but didn't say anything. Harry went into Tom's dad's office, looked around it and smiled, before closing the door. Dougie looked over towards the room that Harry had just disappeared into before slowly going up the stairs.

The silence was starting to get to him, and the little creaky sounds of the old wood was starting to make him jump. He walked around slowly, looking at the picture of Tom and Carrie that had been put up. He smiled when he saw one of Tom as a baby and another one when he was a toddler and was missing a few of his teeth. Looking at more pictures, his chuckled a little bit when he saw pictures of the four of them as they grew up together. Pictures from numerous Thanksgivings, Christmases, Halloweens, even Valentine's Days.

"Hard to believe that we met and became friends when we were six." Dougie muttered to himself. "It's been so long…and things have been going great."

He turned his head, and noticed an odd looking door that was down at the end of the hallway. He had never noticed it before because whenever he was over at Tom's house he was either in the kitchen, the basement, or Tom's bedroom. He never really looked at the rest of the house.

He moved towards the door and pulled it open, seeing it was a closet, he started to laugh a little bit to himself. "Wow, what is this, Sixth Sense?" he asked himself.

"Dougs?" Dougie turned around and saw Danny, Harry, and Tom walking over to him. "How come you aren't hiding?" Tom looked over towards the closet. "And what's your fascination with the linen closet?"

"Maybe he has something to tell us" Danny suggested with a grin. Dougie, Harry, and Tom looked at him in confusion and his smile faded. "You know…coming out of the closet. Sorry, that was a dumb joke."

"No duh." Harry replied, rolling his eyes. An evil grin suddenly appeared on his face and in anticipation of what was going to happen, Dougie took a step back. "Do you want a closer look?"

Before Dougie could get out of the way, Danny, Tom, and Harry grabbed Dougie's arms and legs and shoved him in to the closet, closing the door behind him.

Dougie fell onto his back, hitting the back of his head on a shelf on his way down. He sat up and rubbed the back of his head, feeling a lump already form. He sighed and stood up, lightly pushing against the door. He rolled his eyes when he found out that his friends were keeping the door shut.

"Come on guys, open the door!" he called. He was only replied with giggles and shuffling feet as his friends tried to keep the door shut. Dougie was starting to lose his patience and he threw his body weight against the door. "Guys!"

_Dougie gasped as he ran to his bedroom and threw the door shut. He was about to lock it when his father slammed the door open, causing Dougie to fall to the ground._

"_No, please don't!" he cried, moving his hands up in front of his face._

"_Get over here!" Gary cried and kicked him the side. Dougie cried out in pain and curled into the fetal position, trying to block any more reigns that will hit his body. "NO, don't cover yourself! Take it like a man!"_

_Dougie looked up and saw the blood on Gary's hand as his father tried to pull his arms away. And then Dougie snapped. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO JAZZIE?"_

"_What I'm going to do to you if you don't listen to me!" Gary snarled and beat him on the head. He lifted Dougie up off the floor and started to drag him out of the room._

"_Let me go!"_

_Dougie's cries fell on deaf ears and he was dragged over to the hallway closet. He struggled to get out of his father's grasp, but he knew it was useless. Gary threw the closet door open and shoved Dougie inside, closing and locking it behind him. Smirking to himself, Gary walked back down the stairs, ignoring his son's screams._

"_LET ME OUT! PLEASE! DAD, LET ME OUT!"_

Dougie screamed.

He punched the door.

He cried.

"LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT, PLEASE! HELP ME! HELP ME, LET ME OUT!"

Dougie fell forward as the closet door was suddenly yanked open. He braced himself against the banister, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Dougie, we're sorry." Tom gasped behind him. Dougie turned his head around and looked at his friends. They looked scared. "We…weren't thinking. We're sorry." He took a step forward.

"Stay away from me!" Dougie gasped as he slowly edged himself along the banister.

"Dougie."

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Dougie shouted, causing his friends jump. With that, Dougie turned and ran down the stairs and out the front door.

He continued to run, breathing heavily, sobbing uncontrollably, and not caring who heard him or who saw him. As he was running, he crashed into someone and fell to the ground. He looked up and quickly wiped his eyes, getting to his feet.

"In a hurry I see." Riley commented as she bent down to grab her bag of groceries that had spilled over onto the street. She looked over at Dougie and stopped when she saw that he was looking at the ground, making little sniffling noises. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing." He replied, lifting his head. Riley made a face of disbelief as she looked at his bloodshot eyes.

"Right, like I can believe that one." She sighed and moved the bag to one arm and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. Quickly glancing at the time, she put her cell phone back in her pocket and looked at Dougie, flicking her head in the opposite direction. "C'mon."

"Where are we going?" Dougie mumbled as he followed her.

"To my house."


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: This chapter is shorter than the others because I wanted it to be shorter. Don't forget that the length of the chapters are how I want them to be. Thanks for reading guys, I hope you enjoy this one! ^-^**

* * *

**Chapter Four**

"My foster parents aren't home, so we have the house to ourselves right now." Riley said as she opened the front door and waited for Dougie to go inside. He hesitantly stepped inside and looked around. "The house isn't going to attack you." She said with a chuckle.

"I know that," he replied quietly as he turned to look at her. "It's just kinda weird; you don't live down the street from me anymore."

"Considering that my dad is in jail, along with yours, that kind of makes sense." Riley replied as she raised an eyebrow and walked towards the kitchen to put the bags of groceries on the counter. "What?" she asked when she saw that Dougie was staring at her.

"Nothing," he put his hands in his pockets and looked away. "I was just wondering what's it's like to live with a foster family."

"Not much different than living with my dad," she replied as she tilted her head to the side, her black hair falling out of her face. "I don't get hit. But my foster parents are working so much that I hardly see them as it is. Besides, I'm probably going to move to another foster home in a month or so."

"Why?"

"If a social worker comes over here and sees that I'm not being 'taken care of'" Riley used air quotes around the words. "Then I'm out of here and off to some other foster home."

"But, here, in London right?"

"Probably not."

"Oh"

Riley let a slow grin slide onto her face as she looked over at Dougie. "Why, would you miss me?"

"What?" Dougie looked up and blushed, shaking his head. "No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I was just asking. Just making sure."

"Right." Riley replied in a tone that showed that she didn't believe him. "So what's up with you? What's gotten you so scared?"

"Nothing," Dougie replied and snorted as if he was offended. "I don't get scared."

"Sure." Riley made another sound as if she didn't believe him and started to dig around in a bag. She pulled out a large carton of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and grabbed two spoons out of a cabinet drawer. Slamming it closed with a hip-check, she walked over to the small dining table and motioned for Dougie to sit down. "So, are you going to tell me the truth?" she asked as she handed him a spoon before opening the carton and scooping out a large chunk of chocolate chips.

"I did tell you the truth." Dougie replied and took a big spoonful for himself. He took a bite and winced, grabbing his head. "Ow." He breathed, one eye open. "Brain freeze."

"Drink water." Riley instructed.

"Wouldn't that make me colder?" Dougie asked incredulously.

"Works for me." Riley replied in monotone. "And I can tell from the way that you're sitting in your chair that you're lying." She smirked when Dougie suddenly sat up straight, adjusting his posture. "That and you wouldn't look me in the eye."

"Fine," Dougie muttered as he dropped his spoon. "With the guys, I was playing hide and seek. And I kind of got distracted while we were playing."

"What did you get distracted by?"

"I was looking at Tom's family pictures, and the pictures that were of all four of us." Dougie replied and took another bite of ice cream.

"So, they found me when I was standing in the hallway, looking at a picture of the four of us from Halloween and Thanksgiving. They decided that it would be funny to lock me into the hall closet." He shrugged and looked away, a faraway look in his eyes, a small, amused smile on his face.

"I guess it_ was_ funny. But…I couldn't help but think of dad…and all that he did to Jazzie and I. And, I guess it scared me enough to think that he was the one that was holding me in and I started to scream and cry, begging them to let me out." He chuckled bitterly. "So, like a baby I started to cry and out of embarrassment I ran away until I ran into you."

"You weren't acting like a baby when you cried." Riley stated as she knocked Dougie's spoon out of the way and took another chunk of cookie dough that he was reaching for.

"Oh yeah, then what would _you_ call it?" Dougie replied as he raised an eyebrow and grabbed the whole carton out of her reach. Riley didn't even bat and eye as she put down her spoon on a napkin.

"I'd call it post traumatic stress disorder." She replied as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Which would make sense as to why you're going to therapy."

"So, why are _you_ going to therapy?" Dougie asked in reply.

"I already told you." Riley sighed as she started to tap the table with her index finger, the sound of her nail clacking against the table. "I went for my bipolar disorder."

"I know that, but something bad with your bipolar disorder must have happened to make you go." Dougie replied. "What was it?"

"Now' not the time to tell."

"Meaning?"

"I'm not going to tell you until I feel like it."

Dougie let out a small laugh and then it turned into full blown hysteria. Riley watched in mild amusement as his laughter slowly faded and he rested both arms on the table, resting his forehead against it. Finally, he lifted his head back up and shook it as he stared at Riley.

"You know, you're a real piece of work." He said incredulously. "So, why is it that I'll tell you what you want to know, but you won't tell me."

Riley reached her hand out and took Dougie's in hers. "Here's one thing that you have to know about life, Dougie." She said, looking him straight in the eye. "Learn when to keep your mouth shut of your own business."

With that, she stood up, dropping Dougie's hand. She crossed over to Dougie's side of the table, took his face in her hands,and kissed him.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

"So, what are we now?" Dougie asked quietly.

"What do you mean?" Riley asked, turning away from the TV to look at him. Using her other hand, she paused the DVD that they were watching and pulled her feet off of his lap.

"I mean, are we friends? Or are we dating? Or was that kiss just meaningless to you?" Dougie asked as he looked at her, thankful that it was dark or he'd be blushing up a storm.

"That depends," Riley replied as she rested her arm on the couch and then rested her cheek on her open palm. "Was it meaningless to you?"

"Why can't you ever give a straight answer?" Dougie asked, slightly irritated.

"Because life wouldn't be as interesting." Riley replied mysteriously and gave a smirk. "Seriously though, did you feel something when I kissed you?"

"I think I did." Dougie admitted.

"What do you mean you _think_?" Riley repeated. "You either did or you didn't. It's not so hard to say. Be direct."

"Ok, I did feel something, it's not like I would really know, and I've never had a girlfriend before."

"That I don't believe."

"Well you should, it's true. Ask any of the guys if you don't believe me."

"I'll take your word for it."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Have you had a boyfriend?"

"A few, but they're all jerks anyway."

"How are they jerks?"

"The fact that they all hit me should be a clue."

"Oh"

Dougie fell silent as he looked over at Riley and then looked away, deep in thought. He looked at his watch and stood up. "I think it's time for me to go, my mom must be looking for me."

"All right," Riley sighed as she got up off of the couch and led Dougie over to the door and opened it. "See you later."

"Bye." Dougie replied and walked out the door.

"Wait a second," Riley grabbed Dougie's arm, stopping him. He turned around and his eyes widened when Riley kissed him again. She took a step back, grinning. "To answer your other question…I _did_ feel something. Bye." She went back into the house and closed the door.

Dougie gave a soft smile as he touched his lips before turning and walking back to his home. Halfway there, he stopped and cursed at the sky when it started to rain, something that he should have known would probably happen. Especially with his luck.

He got home about ten minutes later and was soaked to the bone when he got inside.

"Hi Dougie!" Jazzie cried as she came in from the kitchen and reached out for a hug. She stopped when she saw that his clothes were wet. "What happened, did you fall into a pool?"

"No, it's raining." Dougie replied as he kicked off his shoes. They landed with a wet smack on the carpet and Jazzie winced. "Where's mum?"

"Watching TV." Jazzie replied. "She was worried about you because Tom called and asked where you were after you left his house."

"I went over to Riley's." Dougie replied and then looked annoyed as Jazzie grinned knowingly. "Wipe that smirk off or I'm going to have to hug you."

"Ew, no, you're wet!"

"Exactly!"

Jazzie let out a shriek as Dougie lunged for her, and she twisted away, running towards the kitchen. Dougie ran after her and chased her around the island before climbing on top and over it to grab her. Jazzie laughed as she ran away towards the living rom.

"Mum! Mum! Dougie's trying to _kill_ me!" Jazzie cried as she ran into the living room and jumped onto her mom for protection.

Dougie ran into the living room and halted in place, making sure he didn't get the couch wet.

"Dougie, what are you doing, love?" Sam asked with a little laugh as she put her arm around her daughter, who stuck her tongue out at her brother.

"I'm trying to kill my sister, and if you would just let her go then everybody would be happy." Dougie replied with a smirk as he regained his composure.

"Why are you all wet?" Sam asked as she stood up and pinched the sleeve of his shirt.

"I was walking in the rain" Dougie replied with a casual shrug. Jazzie opened her mouth, getting ready to call his bluff, but he glared at her and she fell silent. "I just went walking around after I left Tom's house."

"Dougie, we need to talk about that." Sam sighed and looked at her son in concern. Dougie looked at her in confusion.

"What's there to talk about?"

"I know what happened."

"Nothing happened, we were just playing hide and seek and they scared me." Dougie insisted, growing impatient.

"Dougie-"

"Whatever." Dougie turned and ran up the stairs to his bedroom to grab some clean clothes before taking a shower. As he stood in the shower, letting the hot water run over his body, he thought about what had happened.

"_Come on guys, open the door!" he called. He was only replied with giggles and shuffling feet as his friends tried to keep the door shut. Dougie was starting to lose his patience and he threw his body weight against the door. "Guys!"_

_Dougie screamed._

_He punched the door._

_He cried._

"_LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT, PLEASE! HELP ME! HELP ME, LET ME OUT!"_

_Dougie fell forward as the closet door was suddenly yanked open. He braced himself against the banister, sobbing uncontrollably._

"_Dougie, we're sorry." Tom gasped behind him. Dougie turned his head around and looked at his friends. They looked scared. "We…weren't thinking. We're sorry." He took a step forward._

"_Stay away from me!" Dougie gasped as he slowly edged himself along the banister._

"_Dougie."_

"_STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Dougie shouted, causing his friends jump. With that, Dougie turned and ran down the stairs and out the front door._

Dougie sighed and shook his head, rubbing his eyes. He turned off the water and stood there for a few minutes before getting out, getting dried, and changing into dry clothes. He then went down to the kitchen and sat down at the table and started to eat the dinner that was left at his spot, avoiding his mother's and his sister's gazes.

"This is good, mum." He muttered as he looked up at and smiled at her. Sam smiled back in reply and Dougie's couldn't help but notice that it was the first smile that he had seen n her face in a long time. "Mum, are you doing anything this weekend?"

"No, why?" Sam replied as she looked at him in confusion. Dougie held up a finger and turned towards Jazzie.

"What about you, do you have any plan with your friends this weekend?" he asked.

"No." Jazzie replied and then gave a smile. "Do _you_ have any plans with Riley?"

"Hey,_ I'm_ the one asking the questions here!" Dougie snapped and Jazzie rolled her eyes. "I was thinking that the three of us could do something this weekend. I mean, we haven't done anything together in a long time."

"What were you thinking of doing, Dougie?" Sam asked as she sat back in her chair and scrutinized her oldest child.

"I was thinking that we could go bowling or something, you know, like a family." Dougie suggested as she twirled his fork around on his plate, the light screeching sound filling the air and masked the tension.

"I think that's a great idea." Jazzie cried with a grin. "I haven't gone bowling in a long time and I want to beat Dougie."

"Ha ha" Dougie rolled his eyes. "What do you think mum?" he asked quietly. He suddenly felt alarmed when he saw the sad look on Sam's face. "What, did I say something wrong?"

"No, I'm just happy." Sam replied and wiped her eyes. "Both of my children are safe and are growing up well. I love both of you."

"We love you too, mummy." Jazzie replied.

"I think bowling is a good idea, Dougie." Sam replied with a smile.

Dougie smiled back and the three went back to eating their dinner in silence.

* * *

"Dougie?"

Dougie opened an eye sleepily and looked at his clocked. 3:45. He looked over at Jazzie, who was wrapped in a blanket and glared at her. "What do you want? It's 3 in the morning."

"Apparently you can't read a clock, its 3:45." Jazzie contradicted him.

"What do you want?"

"I had a bad dream and…I dunno I guess I got scared." Jazzie replied quietly, pulling the blanket tighter against her. "Can I sleep with you?"

"Fine." Dougie muttered and closed his eyes again. Jazzie moved to the other side of the bed and climbed in.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

* * *

**From July 12th - July 24th, we'll be out of town without a computer so we won't be able to update any of our stories**


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Dougie woke up early the next morning and couldn't get back to sleep. Looking at his clock, he saw that it was only 1:00 in the morning. Looking down, he smiled a little bit when he saw that Jazzie was curled up in a ball, sleeping heavily. He brushed some hair away from her face before getting out of bed and going down to watch some TV.

'_Jazzie didn't deserve anything of what happened to her.' _I thought to myself as I quietly climbed down the stairs. '_I didn't deserve it either, but I should have noticed that something was bothering Jazzie sooner. If I had, maybe she wouldn't have had to suffer for so long._'

Flopping down on the couch, I picked up my cell phone from the table while I turned on the TV with my other hand. I flipped open my cell phone and saw all of the texts that I had gotten from my friends. Ignoring them and giving myself a mental note to talk to them in school tomorrow, I turned back to the TV.

SpongeBob SquarePants was on and although I think the show is stupid and old, it was one of the first episodes and those are the funniest ones. I guess the only reason I really like it was because they came on the time when my dad was gone and I didn't have to worry about anything going wrong in my life.

But now…

I shook my head and focused on the TV until I felt my eyes start to droop. Turning off the TV, I shuffled upstairs and headed towards my room, but hesitated outside of the door and looked down the hallway towards mum's bedroom.

Sighing, I turned and walked over to the room and lightly knocked on the doorframe. "Mum?" I called softly.

"Yeah, Dougie, what is it?" Mum asked after a second as she tried to wake up.

"Nothing," I replied and walked into the room, climbing into her bed. "I love you, mum."

"I love you too Dougie." Mum replied and ran her fingers through my hair, like she did when I was younger. The door creaked open wider and I could see Jazzie standing in the doorway.

"I woke up and you weren't there." She explained to me as she walked over and climbed into the bed too. "Don't do that, Dougie. I thought something bad happened."

"Sorry." I muttered in apology, pulling the blanket over her.

"Goodnight, mum." Jazzie whispered as she drifted off to sleep.

"Goodnight." Mum replied as she drifted off to sleep too.

I sighed as I stared at the ceiling, not being able to fall asleep.

* * *

"Hey, are you ok?"

Sleepily, I opened an eye and lifted my head off of my locker to face Riley, who was standing in front of me, her head cocked to the side.

"No, I'm fine." I replied with a yawn. "I have to be if I have to pull my grades up and I have to go back to the psychiatrist's office today." I crossed my arms over my chest and rolled my eyes. "I wouldn't have to worry about it if Jazzie wasn't so damned persistent."

"I figured that you mum would be the one to make you be going to the shrink." Riley teased.

"No, my sister is _very_ forceful; my mum is the one that wants me to raise my grades. But is it my fault that I don't get good grades." I explained with a shrug and a smirk. "I don't like school much."

"You and me both." Riley replied and then frowned. "Listen, there's something I have to tell you. You see-"

"Dougie, hey!" Danny said breathlessly as he, Harry, and Tom walked over to us. I looked at him in annoyance as he started to apologize. "Listen, we're sorry about what happened yesterday. We should have realized how that was going to affect you."

"It's fine." I replied sharply.

"Oh," Tom looked embarrassed. "Did we interrupt something?"

"Not really, Riley was just about to tell me something." I replied and turned back to her. Riley looked at Tom, Danny, and Harry before looking back at me and I grinned. "Don't worry, you can say it in front of them, I'm probably going to tell them anyway."

"If you're sure." Riley replied and then hesitated. "We have to go on trial next month."

"What?"


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

"_We_ have to go on trial?" Dougie repeated and Riley nodded. "But why? I haven't done anything wrong and I'm sure my friends haven't done anything that's against the law."

Riley blinked in confusion. "Anything against the-"she broke off and let out a little laugh. "No, no, no. We're not going to on trial like we've done something wrong. We have to testify against our fathers. _Their_ trial is next month."

"Wow, you really know how to freak someone out." Dougie commented as he rolled his eyes.

"It wasn't hard, considering you're kinda touched in the head." Riley replied with a smirk as she lightly tapped Dougie's forehead. The two laughed quietly as Tom, Danny, and Harry looked at them in confusion.

"Oh, sorry." Dougie apologized when he saw the looks on his friends' faces. "Uh," he rubbed his neck. "Riley and I are…uh….kinda going out now."

"That's great." Tom beamed. He hadn't seen his friend this happy since before his father came back into the picture. He sometimes blamed himself for not knowing that Dougie was having problems with his dad and that it was growing out of control. But at least there was someone that could make him a little happier, including himself and his friends.

"I'm very happy for you two." Harry added with a smile of his own.

"Did you two kiss yet?" Danny asked with an eager smile. Tom and Harry slapped him on the back of the head as Dougie looked embarrassed and Riley just stared at him.

"Yes." She replied bluntly and then raised an eyebrow. "Why did you hit him on the back of the head?"

"Oh, that's just a joke between the four of us!" Dougie explained, happy that the attention was taken off of him. "You see, whenever Danny says or does something stupid or without tact, we hit him and then make a joke that he's losing brain cells." He let out a little laugh. "And I'm guessing that he just lost six of them."

Riley laughed a little bit too. "Oh, I get it." She gave a fond smile. "Patrick was the same way, but he was kind of stupid as it was, so we never had to hit him for it." She had a thoughtful look on her face. "I think it's because I accidentally dropped him when he was a baby, but I'm not really sure."

"Uh, who's Patrick?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

A sad look crossed Riley's features and then it disappeared and a hardened expression came to her eyes. "That was my little brother."

"_Was_?" Danny repeated.

"Yeah…I had a twin sister….twin little brothers….and older brother….and a baby brother." Riley muttered as she looked down at her feet.

"What….happened to them?" Tom asked gently.

"They died….my father killed them."

* * *

"Mum, can I talk to you about something?" Danny asked as he walked into the kitchen as soon as he got home from school the next day.

"Yeah honey, what's going on?" Poppy Jones asked her son as she watched him drag himself over to a chair and sit down in it. She noticed the troubled expression on his face and sat down in a chair next to him, running her fingers through his hair. "What's wrong?"

Danny burst into tears and threw his arms around his mother in a tight hug. Mrs. Jones just simply hugged her son and rocked him from side to side as if he was a little boy all over again, whispering comforting words into his ear.

"Mum, dad's not going to come back is he?" Danny finally whispered.

Poppy pulled away from her son and wiped his tears off of his cheeks. "No, he's not going to come back." She paused. "Is that what you're worried about? You think that your father is going to come back like Dougie's and hurt us." Silently, Danny nodded. "That's not going to happen sweetie and you dad knows that, and I know that. Now what you can do is just be supportive and help Dougie try to get over this. It may take a while, what with him having to go on trial next month."

"You know about that?" Danny whispered.

"Yes," Poppy replied. "Samantha called and phoned me, Debby, and Emma this morning. She even called Mrs. Nelson, Riley's foster mother, to tell her that they were going on trial. Which, I'm sure, she told Riley."

"Yeah, she told us at school today." Danny muttered.

"Danny," Poppy placed a comforting hand on top of Danny's head and smiled at him. "I promise that all of this is going to be ok in time. You'll see."

"Thanks mum." Danny whispered in reply.

* * *

"So Dougie, have you been having any nightmares lately?" Dr. Peterson asked as he balanced a clipboard on his knee.

Dougie sighed in annoyance and didn't reply. This was the fifth time that he has visited Dr. Peterson and once again he decided not to say anything. Jazzie was starting to get annoyed with his brothers' attitude, but she also understood why he wasn't talking. It was a hard subject, and it was even harder for her to tell the doctor things about what had happened. She didn't want to live it again, but she also knew that it would help her in the long run and that she would be helped.

Dougie let out another sigh, when he realized that Dr. Peterson wasn't looking away from him and slowly nodded. "I've been having a few nightmares, but not a lot." He murmured, loud enough for him to hear.

"That's good." Dr. Peterson replied as he nodded his head and wrote down on the clipboard.

"How is that good?"Dougie demanded.

"Dougie!" Jazzie hissed.

"Shut up!" Dougie snapped back. "This guy is a quack; I don't even know why we're here!"

"I'm sorry about this, my brother is a big _idiot_" Jazzie apologized.

Dr. Peterson chuckled. "Don't worry about it; it's actually very normal for him to be mad like this." He replied soothingly. "I would actually be alarmed if you guys were perfectly fine." He leaned back in his chair. "Now, tell me everything that happened when you were at friend's house. From what happened when you got there, to when they put you in the closet, to when you ran off."

Dougie glared at Dr. Peterson, who looked back at him evenly and the anger and determination finally slid away from Dougie's eyes. "Alright" he murmured.

* * *

In the same building but in a different office, Riley was waiting for her own shrink to arrive. She looked at her watch and rested her cheek on her upturned hand, tapping her foot impatiently. Finally, her shrink, Dr. Reed, walked into the room and made himself comfortable in his chair before speaking.

"Good Afternoon, Rilandon."

"It's Riley." She grunted like she has done every day she went there. "Hey." I muttered back, shrugging her shoulders. She had her arms crossed over her chest because she was cold. If you asked him, he would say it was because it was a way to hide things that she didn't want to say. But Riley didn't believe him; doctors are a lot of quacks anyway.

"How're you doing today?"

"Fine." Riley replied simply, wrapping her finger around the loose thread on the bottom of her shirt, and she watched as my finger turned purple before she let it go. "Look, we both know that I'm here because-"  
"I know why you're here," Dr. Reed replied calmly as he glanced at his clipboard, probably looking at all of the notes that other people had given him. "What I want to know is why you did it and why you continue to do it."

"I don't know." Riley replied, looking at her feet before looking up sharply. "And I don't do it anymore."

"Did you do it for attention?" Dr. Reed pressed. Riley stayed silent. "Did you do it because you felt alone?"

"No, I did it because-"Riley stopped short and then continued when Dr. Reed stared at her, silently urging her to continue. "I did it because I wanted to find a way to express myself to him…to show that I care about him."

"Who's he?" Dr. Reed asked and Riley ignored the question. "Does he care about you?"

"If he does, he has a funny way of showing it." Riley replied and then let out a chuckle. "Yeah, he cares, we're going out now."

"And he doesn't know that you cut yourself?"

"No, he doesn't." Riley replied in a low growl. "And I _don't_ do it anymore."

"Let me see your arms." Dr. Reed replied calmly.

Riley rolled up the sleeves of her shirt, glaring at the old scars on her arms, ones from her and ones from her father. Dr. Reed looked over them and then reached into his pocket, pulling out a tissue. Before Riley could move, he pressed the tissue to her arm, hard, and pulled it back, moving some make up off of her arm to show that there were some recent cuts that were healing.

"Those are old." Riley muttered.

"All right." Dr. Reed replied, giving her the benefit of the doubt. "Those are old. I believe you. But if you start cutting again, or if you feel as if you need to talk to someone, come to me, I can help you."

"Ok"


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

"Hey" Riley greeted Dougie and Jazzie as she walked outside of the psychiatrist's office. "Did I make you wait too long?"

"No, we just got out here ourselves." Jazzie replied and grinned as she looked back and forth between Riley and Dougie. "So when did you too get together?"

"Don't mind her," Dougie put a hand over Jazzie's face and pushed her away, making sure that he. "She was born a natural pest."

"No, it's cool." Riley replied and looked at Jazzie with a sad smile. "My brothers were the exact same way." She cleared her throat and nervously rubbed her arm. "So, where did you guys want to go?"

"Can we go to the park?" Jazzie asked after a second. "I haven't been there for a while and I'm sure that mum wouldn't mind because you guys are with me."

"That's fine." Riley agreed and held out her hand, looking over at Dougie, who looked annoyed. "What about you?"

"Don't worry about him," Jazzie jumped into the conversation and grabbed Riley's hand. "He gets kind of silent like that when he pisses his pants."

"That's not true!" Dougie shouted behind them as he slowly followed the two of them, grumbling some curses under his breath as he shook his head back and forth in annoyance.

"He always denies it," Jazzie continued with a little shake of her head, as if she was ashamed about it. She pulled Riley down a little bit and started to stage-whisper, making sure that Dougie could actually hear her. "But mum and I still love him even though it's probably the most embarrassing thing in the world."

"JAZZIE, SHUT UP!"

"Calm down, Dougie, she's just joking." Riley reassured him with a little laugh as she let go of Jazzie's hand and watched her skip forward ahead of them. "I don't believe it anyway," she smiled a little bit. "The only time you freeze up is when you get embarrassed and blush," She poked his cheek. "kind of like you are now."

"Don't do that." Dougie muttered and brushed her hand off of his cheek.

"Sorry."

"It's alright." Dougie replied quietly and hesitantly put his arm around her shoulders. Riley couldn't help but chuckle a little bit and Dougie looked at her in confusion. "What? What's so funny?" he asked. Riley shook her head and didn't answer. "No, I know that there's something, don't do that whole 'mystery girl' thing on me. It's not going to work this time." He declared.

"That's what you think." Riley replied with a smirk as they arrived at the park. Jazzie immediately went off to play soccer with a bunch of kids from her school and Riley and Dougie walked over to a bench and sat down. She let out a heavy sigh and shook her head. "You're lucky that your sister loves you so much."

Dougie shifted uncomfortably. "Oh yeah, I'm really sorry about what happened to your siblings. That really sucks."

"Yeah, I know." Riley replied simply. Dougie studied her face, to see if she was about to cry or something, but she just looked peaceful, and a little troubled at the exact same time. She let out a heavy sigh. "I miss them so much, I just want to be with them, ya know?"

Dougie sat up straight and stared at her profile. "You're not….you're not suicidal are you?"

"Of course not." She rolled her eyes. "If memory serves correctly, and when it comes to you I'm pretty much always right, I was the one that told you that suicide is not the answer." She replied and finally turned to look at Dougie. She took his hand in hers. "Trust me, I'm fine. What about you?"

He turned away.

"What about me?" he asked sharply.

"How are you nightmare-"

"I'm _not_ having any nightmares."

"But-"

Dougie turned his head and glared at her, which shocked Riley enough to scoot backwards a little bit, as if he was about to jump towards her and grab her shoulders and shake her.

"Listen, I don't know what everybody is talking about," he said quietly as he stared hard at her, as if he was daring her to say something otherwise. "I'm fine. Those dreams that I had before were just stupid dreams that aren't going to come true anyway. There's absolutely nothing wrong with me and I would appreciate it if you would stop asking me that question."

"Fine, be in denial." Riley replied with a sort as she stood up and stretched. "Mr. and Mrs. Nelson want me home soon."

"No one's stopping you."

With a careless shrug and a flip of a finger, Riley turned and walked away. Dougie let out a heavy sigh and dropped his head into his hands.

"What's wrong with me?" he whispered to himself.

* * *

_Sorry it was a short chapter...anyway. Oh no, Dougie's starting to get all pissy and deny everything. That's definitely not good. So, the next chapter should be up soon. Thanks for those who reviewed and I hope you enjoyed this chapter._


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: I know I said that I'm retiring from this fandom, and I am, I'm just going to finish this story first as I already have the ending and I know which way I want the story to go. Thanks for reading guys.**

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

"Hey dude, what are you doing here?" Danny asked sleepily two weeks later. He ran his fingers through his hair, brushing his hair out of his face as he looked at his watch. "It's only five in the morning, what are you waking me up for? I don't even get up this early for school." He paused for a second as he looked at Dougie and then looked at his watch again. "Wait, today's a school day." He glared at Dougie who stared back at him innocently. "What the hell did you wake me up for?"

"Shh!" Dougie hissed as he took a step back and looked at the dark windows on Danny's house and then looked up and down the street before turning back to Danny. "You didn't really want to go to school did you?"

"What are you getting at?"

"Want to take a day off?"

"Meaning?"

"Let's play hooky!"

Danny stared at Dougie, not sure what to say. This behavior was starting to bug him.

Dougie seemed to be mad and happy at different times of the day. One minute he was happy and having a good time hanging out with his friends and with his girlfriend, then the next minute the two of them would be arguing over something stupid as Tom, Harry, and Danny watched them, half in amusement, and half in annoyance. Even though Riley and Dougie have been dating for two weeks, Danny assumed that since the two of them abused, they seemed to have spells of anger that were left over from when they were mad at their fathers.

Danny hated to say it but it reminded him of how Dougie acted when he was getting abused. Now it was starting to scare him more.

"Dougs are you ok?" he asked slowly.

Dougie let out a growl of annoyance and shook his head in frustration. He was starting to get annoyed of everybody asking him those questions. It wasn't helping much that he was going to go on trial to testify against his father next month and that Jazzie was trying to schedule even more sessions with Dr. Peterson.

Everything was starting to drive him insane.

"You know what, forget it." Dougie said in a calm tone as he backed away. Danny could tell that Dougie wasn't calm at all and started to back off of the porch. "I should have known you didn't want to hang out with the space case." He let out a bitter chuckle. "I've seen the way that you guys look at me. I know that you're always talking about me behind my back."

"That's because we're worried about you, Dougs." Danny replied as he quickly reached down and started to grab his shoes.

"I don't need you guys to worry about me." Dougie snapped and then turned and started to walk away. Danny scrambled after him.

"Wait, where are you going?" Danny called as she started to hop up and down as he moved forward, pulling on a jacket and tying his shoes at the same time.

"To have some fun!" Dougie shouted back over his shoulder. "Come or not, it doesn't matter."

Danny sighed in annoyance as he stopped for a second to finish tying his shoe and to pull his jacket on completely, before running after Dougie to catch up to him. He studied his friend's face and noticed that he had a look in his eyes, as if they were on fire. It was then that he noticed Dougie's heavy breathing and his fists clench and unclench over and over again.

There was something seriously wrong with him.

"Dougie, stop." Danny said, grabbing his friend's arm and trying to make him hold still. Dougie wrenched his arm out of his grasp and continued walking, as if Danny wasn't even there. "Dougie! Come on! Calm down!"

"Stop it, Danny!" Dougie shouted as he turned to face him, not caring that he had probably just woken up the whole neighborhood. "I'm sick and tired of your condescending attitude."

"Condescending?" Danny snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm _not_ being condescending. I'm-"

"Worried about me, I know." Dougie replied with a roll of his eyes and then snorted himself. "It doesn't surprise me, that's probably one of the stupidest moves you've ever made and you're pretty stupid to begin with."

Danny was hurt with that statement. He could tell that it was just Dougie's anger that was telling him those things, but he was still mad that it had been said. He took in a few deep breaths and then sighed heavily as he felt the anger that had been piling into him finally melt away. "Dougie, I know that you didn't mean that, and that's the only reason that I'm not kicking your ass right now. But there is clearly something bothering you."

"Nothing's wrong with me, leave me alone." Dougie muttered and turned away again.

"It's obvious that something is." Danny insisted.

"God!" Dougie turned back around and before he knew what he was doing, he punched Danny across the face and pushed him off of the sidewalk and into the street. "WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP FOR ONCE?"

Danny calmly wiped the blood off of his face that fell from his nose and stood up, brushing off his clothes. He took a step forward and wrapped his arms around Dougie in a hug, not saying anything. Dougie stood still for a while, but then he finally broke down and started to cry, holding onto his friend as if he was the last thing to hold onto.

"Danny," he sobbed. "What's wrong with me?"


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N: I know I said that I'm retiring from this fandom, and I am, I'm just going to finish this story first as I already have the ending and I know which way I want the story to go. Thanks for reading guys. And sorry it took so long to get put up, school is really kicking my butt right now and my free time is being taken up with that.**

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

"Dougie, you're suffering from post traumatic stress disorder."

"Couldn't you have figured that out a few days _after _my dad was sent away?"

Jazzie rubbed her forehead and placed her head into her hands as Sam started to cry a little bit. She had noticed that Dougie's behavior was changing drastically; it wasn't something that you could miss. She just wasn't sure what she could do about it.

"Dougie quit being an ass and let the doctor do his job!" Jazzie snapped. "I'm sick and tired of your attitude, you know?"

"Who isn't?" Dougie asked as she crossed his arms over his chest and looked away, setting his jaw. "Even my friends can't stand to be around me right now."

"I'm surprised your girlfriend can." Jazzie replied.

Dougie whipped his head around and glared at her, but Jazzie didn't back down from her older brother. She knew that it was a mean thing to say, especially since she knew that Riley was going through the same thing that they were, but she was dealing with it differently than she and Dougie were, and that made her worried in a different way.

Especially since the night before Riley had given Jazzie an expensive ring that she had gotten for one of her birthdays before. When Jazzie asked why Riley had given it to her, she casually replied 'because I don't need it anymore, and I wanted to give you something for forgetting your birthday.'

Jazzie's birthday had been pretty quiet, but that was only because she hadn't really felt like making a big deal out of it because her mother was as worried about them as it was, she didn't want things to get any worse. Besides, she wanted to look after her brother to make sure that everything was going ok. To make sure that things would go back to the way it was before everything had spiraled out of control.

"I'm going to pretend that you didn't say that." Dougie said quietly as he let out a breath and turned back to Dr. Peterson.

"Why, is it true?" Jazzie countered.

"Just stop it, please!" Sam suddenly cried, causing Jazzie and Dougie both to fall silent and look at her with sadness written in their eyes. It is obvious that they hated it whenever they angered or upset their mother and the fact that all of this, their abuse, had to happen in the first place have really caused them to hate it even more. She stood up and nodded towards Dr. Peterson. "Thank you for all of your help, Dr. But we just want to go home so we can talk about this…the trial, as a family."

"Right, it's coming up in a few weeks isn't it?" Dr. Peterson nodded and gave a sad smile. "I'm sorry that you guys have to go through this, it really isn't fair. "He motioned towards Jazzie and Dougie. "Especially for them being so young, they have to go and see what a trial is like." He sighed and lowered his arm again. "It really isn't fair."

"I know, and thanks again." Sam replied and moved towards the door. Dougie and Jazzie silently stood up and followed their mother out of the office.

Further down the hallway, they saw Riley and her foster mother, Mrs. Nelson, talking to their own doctor. Riley looked anxious about something as she kept looking at her watch, shoving her hands into her pockets, and looking up and down the hallway repeatedly. Even when she was facing Dougie, as if she was looking right at him, she didn't seem to be able to see him at all.

"Mum, can I-"Sam cut Dougie off.

"Of course you can," Sam replied quietly and let out a small sigh.

Dougie took his gaze away from his girlfriend and then looked over at his mother, his heart starting to hurt when he saw how distraught she had started to look over the past couple of weeks. Usually she had on a brave front, was smiling, and was ready and willing to help Jazzie and Dougie with anything that they needed help with. Now…she looked like she was the one that wanted to be helped.

"Mum, I don't have to go if you don't want me to." Dougie said, finally turning to her, feeling guilty. "I can stay and-"

"No, no, go and have fun," Sam held a hand up, causing Dougie to stop talking and gave him a hug. "I want you to be as happy as possible before this trial has to come around."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive."

Dougie hesitated before letting go of his mother. He looked over at Jazzie, who didn't say anything, but shook her head and looked away, before shoving his hands into his pockets and shuffling over to Riley and her foster mother. When Dr. Reed saw him coming, he stopped talking and that turned Mrs. Nelson's attention to him and she stared at him with a weird expression on his face. Riley didn't even look at him; she just continued to look at her watch and up and down the hallway.

"Hello Douglas." Mrs. Nelson said coldly.

"Hi Mrs. Nelson," Dougie replied in the same frosty tone, not exactly sure why she didn't like him. He shrugged his shoulders and cleared his throat nervously. "How are you?"

"I'm doing fine," she replied tightly and then looked over at Riley. "But I'm pretty sure that's not what you came over here to ask. But as you can see, the three of us are really busy and-"

"Mom, can I go and hang out with Dougie?" Riley interrupted. Dougie could tell from the look on Riley's face, looking deep in her eyes, that she didn't want Mrs. Nelson to be called her mother, she didn't want her to have anything to do with being a parental unit to her, and she just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. "We won't be gone long. We just want to walk around the park and hang out with Tom, Danny, and Harry."

Mrs. Nelson regarded Dougie, obviously looking him up and down, making a face as if she smelled something bad, and then turned to Dr. Reed with a loud sigh.

"I don't think it's a good idea," she started to say and then stopped when she saw the look on Dr. Reed's face. "But it may be a good thing, to get your mind off of all of this. Be home soon though, ok?"

"All right," Riley nodded at her foster mother before grabbing Dougie's arm and leading him over to the elevator. As the two stood outside of it, waiting for it to get to their floor, Riley finally spoke to Dougie. "So I see that you and your sister are getting into an argument." She made a snorting sound. "I thought you loved each other."

"We do," Dougie replied, sounding offended. "We're just getting on each other's nerves right now." He cleared his throat and decided to change the subject. "How are you doing? You know, with the trial coming up and such."

"I'm doing fine." Riley replied casually and reached a hand into her pocket before taking out a box and handing it to Dougie. "Here, I want you to have this."

"What is it?" Dougie asked as he took the box.

Riley gave a wry, sad smile. "You won't know unless you open it, won't you?" she studied his reaction as he opened the box to find numerous colored guitar picks in the box. Seeing the confused look on his face, she rushed to explain. "It's obvious that you don't get how important this is." She cleared her throat. "Well, all of those guitar picks are ones that I have gotten from seeing concerts. Blink 182, Yellowcard, New Found Glory, stuff like that. All those guitar picks have been given to me from the band members, and I want you to have them."

"I couldn't." Dougie replied and closed the box, shaking his head. He tried to give it back, but Riley firmly pushed his hands away. "These are special to you."

"And you're special to me." Riley replied, causing him to blush. "Really, I want you to have them."

"Well, if you're sure."

"I am."

"All right then." Dougie placed the box on his pocket before leaning over and giving Riley a sweet kiss. He pulled away with a frown, vaguely wondering if something was wrong, but she didn't kiss him back like she usually would. This time, she seemed to have just stood there, as if she was trying to make sure that she remembered what he kissed like.

To put it simply, it was weird.

And that thought nagged him all up until the day before the trial when he got one final text from her. It was so simple, and it was only one word. But with that one word, he knew what had happened.

The text read…

**GOODBYE**


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

Dougie stood silently, staring at the headstone that was in front of him, refusing to cry. He had cried enough with everything that has happened to him lately, he didn't need to cry anymore. Not even when one of the people that he loved the most had committed suicide.

"Dougie?"

Dougie lifted his head and turned it, not moving the rest of his body, to see Tom standing behind him, biting his lower lip, as if he was afraid that something bad would happen if he talked to his friend.

"Hey." Dougie simply replied and turned back around to stare at the headstone.

Tom sighed and walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm really sorry, Dougie."

"I know."

"She loved you a lot."

"I know."

"Dougie, say something." Tom said after a second more of silence. Dougie let out a few deep breaths before turning to Tom with a glare so fierce that he visibly flinched and took a step backwards, just in case he would do something.

"What do you want me to say, Tom?" Dougie asked quietly as he rubbed a hand over his mouth. His bloodshot eyes filled with rage. "Huh?" he demanded sharply. "What do you want me to say?" he started to wave his arms around in the air. "Do you want me to say I'm happy? Do you want me to say that I'm over the moon?" he sneered at his friend. "Or do you want me to say I'm sad? Because I know I'm sad." He took a deep breath. "And tired. I am fucking sad and tired. Tom, my girlfriend committed suicide because her deadbeat of a father abused her so much that she thought that the only way out was so she could see her siblings again in heaven. _That man is fucking sick!_"

"I know." Tom repeated what Dougie earlier stated in a whisper.

"And now, tomorrow, I have to go on trial for the man that could have killed me or my sister. I don't think that I can take this, Tom." Dougie's eyes welled up with tears and they finally spilled over onto his cheeks. "I don't know how…how anybody can deal with this."

"Dougie?" Tom turned his head and saw Jazzie walking quickly towards him, holding onto the black hat that was on her head. Tom recognized it as Riley's prized baseball cap, something that she never let anyone else touch. "Mum is looking for you."

"Alright." Dougie replied and wiped off his cheeks and stuffed his hands into his pockets. He turned away from Tom and started to walk away with his sister.

"Hey, how's he doing?" Harry asked as he and Danny walked up to Tom. Tom sighed and rubbed his forehead as he tried to find something to say. "That bad huh?"

"You can't blame him." Tom replied as he turned to his friend.

"We know." Danny replied quietly. He sniffed loudly and then looked over towards the Poynter family, who were standing close to each other, talking. "But we just have to be there for him right now. You know, show him that we're still his friends and that we're still there for him."

"So, what can we do? The trial is tomorrow." Harry pointed out.

"I know," Danny crossed his arms over his chest and sighed again. "We're just going to have to go there and show him that he has all of our support."

"I just hope he realizes it." Tom commented.

"Me too." Harry agreed.

* * *

**So, in honor of National Writing Day (which is today) I updated this story. It's almost over as you could probably guess and like I had said earlier, after this story, I am official retiring from this fandom. I may put up some new stories, but that's only if I get a good idea and if the demand is high. ^-^, Thanks though, you guys have been great.**


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

"Will Dougie Poynter please come up to the stand?"

Dougie gulped as he slowly stood up, he was aware that everybody who was in the room was staring at him. He looked down at Jazzie, who nodded up at him and tightly squeezed his hand before Dougie slid out of his row and walked towards the front of the room. He didn't dare to look over towards the desk that his father and Mr. Jackson were sitting.

Earlier they had plead not guilty to everything that has happened and Dougie had to practically get himself duct taped to the chair that he was sitting in to keep himself from launching himself across the room to attack the two men. To make them feel the same amount of pain that he had caused Jazzie, Riley, and himself. He wanted to hurt his dad so badly that he could hardly stand it.

He slowly walked to the front of the court room, was sworn in, and took his seat up by the judge, scanning the room, but keeping his gaze from the left side. His friends and family all nodded towards him, silently giving encouragement. His gaze lingered on Jazzie and his mother before he unconsciously slid it over to his father.

Gary Poynter stared back at him and before Dougie's eyes, his calm demeanor slowly cracked and he started to smirk. As if he knew that he was going to win the whole trial. As if he knew that he was going to get away with everything.

Dougie clenched his jaw.

There was definitely no way that was going to happen.

"Now, Dougie, what is your relationship with Gary Poynter?"

Dougie hardly heard the question, but he was ready for the answer. He gave a snort and shook his head as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Relationship? Why would I want anything to do with that bastard?"

"You seem to be acting kind of strongly towards him."

"You would be too if you were almost beaten to death by this…sick thing you call a human being." Dougie took a deep breath and continued. "I can still remember when he first beat us."

"Us?"

"Me and my sister," Dougie replied flatly and then pointed. "She's sitting over there."

"So, both of you were beaten?"

Dougie hesitated for a second as he thought of a good way to answer the questions. Yes, he and Jazzie were both beaten, but if he said that she was sexually abused, then she would have to go on the stand And she practically fainted when he told her that she might have to testify. Not, it wouldn't be a good idea, but he didn't really have a choice either.

"Yes, we were both beaten."

"…Mr. Poynter, you seem to have hesitated before you finished answering the question. A hesitation that long could make one possibly think that you're lying about everything that has happened."

"I'm not lying!" Dougei practically spat.

"Then why the hesitation?"

"I wasn't sure whether or not I really wanted to bring my sister into this," Dougie replied honestly. "She was sexually abused as well as being physically abused and I can tell from looking at her that she doesn't want to be here. But she's being brave right now and I don't want anything else to happen to her.

The voice suddenly sounded very sweet and caring. "I can tell that you really care about your sister. I know this may be hard, but do you remember what happened the night that your sister told you that she was being molested by your father?"

"Yes."

"_Hey Jazzie, I'm home!" I called as I closed the front door behind me. "Sorry I wasn't able to walk you after school today! I got a detention!"_

_I waited for a few seconds and was surprised at the fact that Jazzie hadn't come running out of the kitchen laughing hysterically, or just plain happy to see me. She normally is._

"_Jazz?" I dropped my backpack on the ground and looked back out of the window by the front door. Mum's car was gone and so was Dad's, I just didn't get why she hadn't come to greet me. Shrugging, I decided to go up to her room to see if she was home. Maybe she was at a friend's house and I didn't know. "Jazz, did I do something to make you mad at me?" I asked as I continued to walk to her room._

"_No, you didn't do anything," Jazzie whispered as I walked into her bedroom. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion as I walked over to her. She was lying down on her bed, facing the wall. I walked over to see her face and I saw that her eyes were wide open._

_I saw that she was crying._

"_Jazz, what's wrong?" I asked quietly, brushing her tears off of her cheeks._

"_Nothing's wrong, I just had a bad day at school." She replied so quietly that I barely heard her._

"_I know that's not true, because you always live for school and even if you have a bad day you're smiling," I replied and moved her legs and sat down next to her, repositioning her legs in my lap. "Now, what's going on? What's wrong?"_

_She was silent._

"_Can I guess?"_

_She didn't answer._

"_Um, this doesn't have anything to do with school," I muttered, rubbing my chin. "Does it have to do with mum? Is she ok?"_

"_She's fine."_

"_Does it have to do with dad?"_

_I watched her as she flinched and squeezed her eyes shut, as if something had just scared her. Obviously, this had something to do with dad. But what? I hadn't noticed anything different about the way that she acted around him. Sure, she didn't want him to move back into our lives, but I hadn't seen._

_Wait a minute._

_I put my hand to my chin as I shifted my eyes back and forth, deep in thought._

'_She does seem to be more attached to mum lately. It's like she doesn't want to be out of her sight. And whenever we're home with dad, she always locks herself in her room, like I do myself. Maybe he's been hitting her too?__'_

"_Jazz, I'm going to ask you this and I want a straight answer. Don't lie; can you do that for me?"_

"_Yeah"_

"_Has dad been hitting you?"_

_Jazzie burst out crying and I waited for her to say something. I hated to see her cry, it always made me want to go and punch the person that hurt her. Sometimes I felt that I could kill the person. In this case, I wouldn't hesitate to hurt our dad._

"_No, Dougie, he's been…touching me." She whispered in reply and bowed her head, as if she was too scared to look me in the eye._

"_What do you mean…he's been touching you?" I asked, knowing full well what she meant. I just wanted to hear her say it out loud. I growled in rage when she didn't answer me. "JAZZIE, TELL ME!"_

"_NO!" She shouted in reply and flopped over into my lap, sobbing loudly. I sighed and rubbed her back gently. I shouldn't have yelled at her, I knew that, but I'm just so mad at dad right now._

_How can he do something like that?_

_Him hitting me I understand, but I don't see how he could cause his thirteen year old daughter to be so scared of him that she doesn't ever want to go home._

"_It's going to be ok, Jazz." I said softly, wrapping my arms around her. "We just have to tell mum and-"_

"_No! Don't tell mum, I don't want her to know!" Jazzie replied sitting up quickly, her eyes wide. "She has some sort of thing with dad that she doesn't want to believe that he can do anything wrong. I just want her to be happy. Don't tell her, please."_

"If you had seen how scared she was, believe me, you wouldn't question it." Dougie added bitterly.

"Alright, now, I have something else that may be a little hard for you to talk about…what happened the night that you and Jazzie where attacked, the attack that sent your father to jail?"

"Yes, I remember it perfectly." Dougie replied confidently.

_As soon as he got there, Jazzie, who was sitting on the front porch, leapt up and ran over to meet him. "Dougie!" she cried and flung her arms around his waist._

"_Jazz, what are you doing here?" he asked, knowing that she was supposed to be at a friend's house. "Where's mum?"_

"_Dad called and told her to take me home and for her to go out and spend the rest of the night by herself." She replied breathlessly and squeezed tighter. "I don't like this, Dougie. We have to get out of here!"_

"_Ok, let me just-"_

_Dougie stopped talking as the front door opened and their father stood there, glaring down at them. Jazzie gasped and ducked down behind Dougie as he stared back at their father._

"_Get in here, now." He whispered menacingly. Dougie took Jazzie's hand and gripped it tightly before slowly walking towards the house. Their father glared at the two of them as they slowly walked into the house. Dougie kept Jazzie behind him as he slowly edged away, watching his father as he closed the front door and locked it. "You sneak out of the house when I slave away in the kitchen?"_

_He placed a hand on both of their shoulders and led them into the kitchen, where there were plates of steaming spaghetti waiting for them. Jazzie sat down in her seat and looked at the plate before looking back up at Dougie, who was hesitating himself._

"_Go on..eat…its fine." Gary replied with a strange smile on his face._

_Dougie hesitated and winced when he got a slap to the back of the head. He looked over at Jazzie again and started to eat the dinner, somewhat expecting some bad taste to hit the back of his throat. But it tasted like any other plate of spaghetti that he's had before._

_Jazzie slowly started to eat the food too, looking over at their father also seeing that he had a funny smile on his face. Dougie continued to eat, trying to keep his father happy. Midway through his twentieth bite, he started to feel weird. Sweat suddenly popped up on his forehead. He lifted his right arm and it felt like it was taking years for it to be lifted up to the height of his chin._

_He looked over at Jazzie and her eyes closed and she slumped off of her chair, onto the floor. Gary walked over to her and bent down, lifting her up off of the floor._

"_What…did you do?" Dougie whispered as the room tilted and swayed. Before he knew it, he was lost in darkness._

_**Dougie's POV**_

_I woke up to the sound of a door slamming shut. I sat up and looked around, quickly, only calming down when I saw that I was in my room. Jazzie was lying across, breathing heavily. I could tell that she was sleeping. I got to my feet and stumbled around the room, my legs felt as if they would give way any second._

_I knew that we had been drugged. I reached Jazzie's side and knelt down next to her. "Jazz" I hissed, grabbing onto her shoulders and shaking her roughly. We had to get out of here and fast._

"_Leave me alone, I'm sleeping" she muttered in reply, opening her eyes. They couldn't focus on mine and they were dilated. I knew that she was in even more trouble than me, just because of the fact that she's younger and her body is still developing. I had to get her to a hospital._

"_Well, you'll be sleeping a lot more if you don't' get up!" I snapped in reply and started to gather her in my arms. "Dad's coming"_

"_Kids" I heard dad say in a sweet voice as my bedroom door open slowly, as if a horror scene from a really scary movie that was my life. I dropped Jazzie and rushed over to the door and rammed into it, slamming it shut. Dad started to pound on the door, the door knob twisted wildly. I could practically feel his anger through the door as I tried to hold it. "__Open this damn door!__"_

_I cried out in shock as I felt my dad slam his whole body weight against the door. I grunted with the effort of trying to keep the door shut. Like a rabid dog, dad kept slamming himself against the door with such force, I could feel my feet slid against the floor._

_After one more buck, the door was pushed forcefully open. The force of the door flying open threw me across the room._

"_Ah, let go" I whimpered, getting up to my knees as Dad strode over and grabbed me by the hair. I coughed as he punched me in the stomach._

"_Never. Shut. The. Door. On. Me. Again" he whispered, glaring at me. "DO YOU HEAR ME? NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!_

_This time he punched me across the face and kicked me in the stomach. I fell to the floor. I screamed in pain as dad grabbed another fistful of my hair and pulled tightly, pulling me across the floor of the room._

_Jazzie got to her feet and raced to the bedroom door. Dad grabbed onto her leg as she passed him and she screamed, falling forward. She hit her head on my night stand and fell to the ground._

_I started over to her, but a whistling sound and the force of something hitting me square in the face knocked me back into the closed door. I looked up through the pain and saw my dad standing over me with a baseball bat in his hands. He swung it again and I dove to the side, the bat hitting the ground right where my leg had been._

"_LEAVE US ALONE" Jazzie shrieked from the corner that she was huddling in._

"_Don't tell me what the fucking hell to do" Dad hissed as he turned to her, swinging the bat over and over._

_I turned my head away, not bearing to watch anymore of what was happening. But I felt my dad grab my chin and jerk my head up, I opened my eyes to look at him, tears falling down my cheeks._

"_Now, you watch me! Do you understand me?" dad yelled. "WATCH ME!" I nodded and flinched as he spat in my face._

_Jazzie shakily got to her feet as dad walked over to her. Her face was pale and blood was dripping out of her nose and mouth. Her eyes were half closed and her clothes were torn from where dad was grabbing her and she tried to get away._

"_You brats make me sick" Dad growled and he struck Jazzie in the side of the head with the bat._

"_JAZZIE!" I screamed and got to my feet before flailing into my dad. He easily overpowered me and turned me around, shoving me in to the window. I steadied myself against it, trying to gain my balance. The room was spinning crazily._

_I looked up briefly, seeing a shadow move. Before I could move, Dad smashed a fist into my forehead, the back of my head slammed against the window and I fell unconscious, sliding to the floor. . ._

_At least…for now…I was safe…_

Dougie winced as he could still feel his father's punches and kicks rain down upon his body. He barely heard his mother and sisters burst out into sobs, he could only concentrate on himself and putting his father into jail. His head almost stopped when he heard his next question.

"What was your relationship with Riley Jackson?"

"She…she uh," Dougie swallowed thickly, tears springing to his eyes. "She was my girlfriend. I liked…loved her a lot." He glared at Robert Jackson. "He caused her to kill herself, because he abused her siblings and her. His abuse killed his other sons and daughter. In the end she got so lonely and tired of the abuse that she killed herself."

"Are you sure she was abused?"

"I remember when I first found out."

_Dougie got off of his bed and put on his shoes. He went over to his window and pulled it open before climbing up onto the roof and looking down at the ground. He stood up there for a few minutes, contemplating whether or not he should jump, before making his decision and leaping into the tree next to his house, like he had done before. But this time he didn't slip and he quickly shimmied his way to the ground._

_As soon as his feet touched the ground, he took off across his lawn, looking over his shoulder to make sure that no one was following him, or watching him from their windows. He ran down the street, looking at his hand and alternately looking at the numbers that were on the houses that he passed. Finally he reached the house that he was looking for and went up to the door, pounding on it with his fist._

_He waited on the front porch, breathing heavily, for a full five minuets before the door cracked open and half of Riley's face was visible._

"_Yes?" she asked quickly._

"_What did you do?" Dougie demanded. Riley must have recognized his voice because she pulled the door open further, bending her head so he couldn't see her face._

"_What do you mean?" she murmured._

"_You know damn well what I'm talking about!" Dougie hissed in reply, trying to keep his anger in check. "Now, why did you tell them?"_

"_Look, this really isn't a good time, so if you could just…leave." She mumbled in reply, looking over her shoulder nervously._

"_Well, I deserve to know why you decided to-"_

"_Riley, who's there?" came a loud, demanding voice._

"_No one, dad! Just some guy from school asking about homework, stay there, I'll be there in a minute." Riley replied quickly._

"_Did you just give me an order?" Dougie blinked and listened as he heard footsteps come closer to the door. "__I'm __father in this family! __Not you! __Don't you fucking dare tell me what to do and what not to do! Come here so I can teach you some manners!"_

"_You may want to get out of here!" Riley said urgently, finally lifting her head. Dougie gasped when he saw her bloody nose and swollen chin, as if her aw had been broken. He hesitated as the footsteps got closer and closer. "Now! GET OUT OF HERE!" She shoved him backwards and slammed the door shut._

_Dougie hurried down the steps of the front porch and down the lawn, only hesitating for a minute when he heard the sounds of screaming coming from behind the closed door. He took a step back to her house, but then turned and sprinted back to his own house._

"After that she started going to the same psychiatric building as me." Dougie replied and then stared straight at Robert Jackson and Gary Poynter with determination in his eyes. "Those two men caused our lives to be hell and you would have to be heartless to let them go."

"I see, thank you Dougie that will be all."

_**-Dougie's POV-**_

_Robert and Gary are sent to jail for the rest of their lives, no chance of parole ever. I know now that my life can finally go back to normal as much as it can. My mum is thinking of moving us away, to get away from it all. But I'm not so sure if that is a good idea, as all of my friends, my support group is here. But I see her reasoning for it too._

_I know that now Jazzie and I can finally group up and put all of this behind us. I'll never forget Riley and I'll never forget what we went through together._

_But there's nothing left to do now but to move forward._

**THE END**

* * *

**A/N: Once again, thanks for reading this story guys, it was good to write. And on that note, I am officially retired from the Just My Luck fandom. I'll still come around and read and review stories, but don't expect me to be putting up any new ones anytime soon. It was my last. I grew up with McFly and with these stories, but as I grew, which I think is only about a year and a half, I realized that I don't listen to McFly as much as I used to. I kind or grew out of them, so I'm not writing stories for them anymore. Again, thanks for reading and for all of the support that you guys have given me.**

**-DarkElements10 (Riley and Rhuben)**


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